05/17/08
Text: Nik Mercer
The Japanese population as a whole has a penchant for coming up with bizarre homespun tips and tricks for just about everything... from curing a sore throat with shochu to fighting constipation with a precise placing of one's thumb to a specific pressure point; from removing pen stains on one's hand with a moist tea bag to decreasing beer foam with a light sprinkle of olive oil. Weird, right? Americans pull each other's fingers to let out some gas or dab some seltzer water and salt on a wine stain to remove it from that expensive white carpet, but that's essentially the extent of our knowledge when it comes to simple-yet-counterintuitive household tricks.
Fortunately, Lisa Katayama has compiled most of the Japanese urawaza (a secret trick or an unmapped shortcut) into one compact and convenient book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.
Check out some page samples (and buy the thing) over at Amazon.com and be sure to bounce on over to Katayam'a blog, Tokyo Mango when you've a chance. She's even posted a few urawaza video tutorials to her site that are worth viewing if the text walk-throughs aren't working for you.
